Abstract: The rapidly developing field of Digital Humanities (DH) is showing how unprecedented volumes of human expression can be studied to reveal new insights into individual and collective engagement within and across societies. Scholars from disciplines such as literature and history are collaborating with scientists from disciplines such as statistics and computer science. Moreover, these interdisciplinary teams often reach beyond campuses to companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Google as well as local, national, and international public and non-profit institutions.

The DH experiences thus far reflect the complexity both of textual analysis and research collaborations across diverse fields and sectors. DH research results have been impressive and disappointing, exhilarating and frustrating. Learning from past successes and failures will help meet today's data analytic challenges and opportunities for studying text in statistical applications ranging from business transactions and cybersecurity to health indicators.

Presenter Bio: Chad Gaffield is a professor of history and Research Chair in Digital Scholarship at the University of Ottawa in Canada. He returned to campus in September 2014 after serving as president and CEO of the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) during 2006-2014. An expert on the sociocultural history of 19th- and 20th-century Canada, Gaffield has been at the forefront of efforts to develop digital technologies that expand, deepen, and facilitate research, teaching, and public engagement.

His scholarship focuses in particular on Canada's official languages in their changing socio-cultural, economic, and demographic contexts since the early 19th century. He has also studied socio-demographic change in the Ottawa Valley as well as childhood and family history during the 19th-century development of mass shooting.

From 2001 to 2008, Gaffield led the interdisciplinary, multi-institutional, and cross-sectoral Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI) Initiative, one of Canada's largest and most innovative research projects in the social sciences and humanities. By developing digital technology to mine historical census enumerations and documentary evidence, CCRI is now enabling unprecedented temporal and spatial analysis of the forces that shaped the 20th century. Gaffield's new project concerns the conceptual and technological making of the Digital Age since the 19th century with special emphasis on Canada.

A fellow in the Royal Society of Canada, he received the RSC's 2004 J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal given for outstanding contributions to the study of Canada. In 2011, Gaffield was awarded the International Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations' Antonio Zampolli Prize which recognizes every three years a major research contribution. in 2015, he received a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Carleton University. Gaffield received his BA (Hons) and MA from McGill University and his PhD from the University of Toronto.

Seminar: “Words, words, words: How the Digital Humanities are Rebooting the Study of People”

Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 10:00am - 11:00am

Presenter:Chad Gaffield, Ph.D.Professor of History, University Research Chair in Digital Scholarship, University of Ottawa

Host:Gizem Korkmaz Research Assistant Professor & SDAL Seminar Chair

Abstract: The rapidly developing field of Digital Humanities (DH) is showing how unprecedented volumes of human expression can be studied to reveal new insights into individual and collective engagement within and across societies. Scholars from disciplines such as Literature and History are collaborating with scientists from disciplines such as Statistics and Computer Science. Moreover, these interdisciplinary teams often reach beyond campuses to companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Google as well as local, national and international public and non-profit institutions. The DH experiences thus far reflect the complexity both of textual analysis and research collaborations across diverse fields and sectors. DH research results have been impressive and disappointing, exhilarating and frustrating. Learning from past successes and failures will help meet today’s data analytic challenges and opportunities for studying text in statistical applications ranging from business transactions and cybersecurity to health indicators.”

Biography: Chad Gaffield is Professor of History and University Research Chair in Digital Scholarship at the University of Ottawa in Canada. He returned to campus in September 2014 after serving as President and CEO of the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) during 2006-2014. An expert on the sociocultural history of 19th- and 20th-century Canada, Gaffield has been at the forefront of efforts to develop digital technologies that expand, deepen, and facilitate research, teaching and public engagement. His scholarship focuses in particular on Canada’s official languages in their changing socio-cultural, economic and demographic contexts since the early nineteenth century. He has also studied socio-demographic change in the Ottawa Valley as well as childhood and family history during the nineteenth-century development of mass schooling. From 2001 to 2008, Gaffield led the interdisciplinary, multi-institutional and cross-sectoral Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI) initiative, one of Canada’s largest and most innovative research projects in the social sciences and humanities. By developing digital technology to mine historical census enumerations and documentary evidence, CCRI is now enabling unprecedented temporal and spatial analyses of the forces that shaped the twentieth century. Gaffield’s new project concerns the conceptual and technological making of the Digital Age since the nineteenth century with a special emphasis on Canada. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he received the RSC’s 2004 J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal given for outstanding contributions to the study of Canada. In 2011, Gaffield was awarded the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations’ Antonio Zampolli Prize which recognizes every three years a major research contribution. In 2015, he received a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Carleton University. Gaffield received his BA (Hons) and MA from McGill University and his PhD from the University of Toronto.